Captured ship: Le Dauphin (master Martin Lermet). History: a French merchant ship...

Captured ship: Le Dauphin (master Martin Lermet).

History: a French merchant ship with letter of marque (80 tons, 6 guns, 31 men), bound from Bayonne to Louisbourg, laden with wine, brandy, shoes and other goods; taken on 9 April 1757 by HMS Rochester (Capt Duff commanding) in company with HMS Somerset and HMS Devonshire, and brought into Portsmouth.

The ship was owned by Mons. Laborde of Louisbourg.

Court Papers:

• [CP 0]: wrapper for court papers;
• [CP 1]: allegation.
• [CP 2]: allegation.
• [CP 3]: standing interrogatories.
• [CP 4-6]: three examinations: Martin Lermet, master; Dominique Le Blanc, second captain; Pierre Derratzou, lieutenant.
• [CP 7]: commissioners' affidavit.
• [CP 8]: affidavit as to papers.
• [CP 9]: translation and abstract of the 19 ships papers.

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Ships Papers numbered SP 1-19 (original no. in sequence 1-227 in brackets: see explanation following):

• SP 1: commission or letter of marque (176);
• SP 2: passport (171);
• SP 3: muster / rôle d'équipage (190). (There are other musters at nos. 184 and 192);
• SP 4: customs bond / acquit à caution (155);
• SP 5: clearance (181);
• SP 6: bill of lading (178);
• SP 7: account (217);
• SP 8: invoice (216);
• SP 9: account (215);
• SP 10: account current of Messrs Solignac et Dulong of Louisbourg with Etienne Cabarrus of Bayonne (-);
• SP 11: bill of lading (199);
• SP 12: bill of fees (153);
• SP 13: certificate of surgeon's supplies (170);
• SP 14: certificate of medical supplies (154);
• SP 15: certificate of the ship gauger of Bayonne, putting Le Dauphin's burthen at 80 tons (189);
• SP 16: duplicate of SP 11 (221);
• SP 17: inventory (217);
• SP 18 (185) and SP 19 (148): orders to fit out the ship for war.

Letters and Papers numbered 1-227 plus [228-235]. Most of the letters were mail-in-transit, but mixed up in the same sequence are letters and other papers from personal archives of those on board Le Dauphin ("PoFo"). Nos. 5, 11, 135, 182 and 213 are PoFo of Dominique Le Blanc, second captain; 2 is also PoFo.

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The 227 or so ships papers and letters, including 51 letters written in the Basque language, were numbered 1 to 227 by the court. 19 of these numbered papers were selected to be used as evidence and renumbered 1-19 so that they now bear two numbers: these are the papers SP1 to SP 19 above (SP 10 has only one number, from the second round of numbering, because it was extracted from a packet). However, the numbering of the papers for the court was bungled, resulting in two number 216s and two 217s. All the papers numbered 1 to 227 have now been located and put together here in one sequence (as of 29 November 2023) with the exception of those extracted to the Ships Papers, and of numbers 16 and 167 which have not come to light. Given the mistakes made in numbering, it cannot be known for sure that there ever was a number 16 or 167 (no. 49 was initially given number 16, but that was crossed out and renumbered 49). There were in addition, several papers without court numbers: some of these have been put in their proper places as enclosures in other letters and packets, such as no. 38, and the remainder given new numbers from [228] to [235]. One or two of these may be the missing papers which complete the sequence (the numbers being originally on torn-off margins now lost), the remaining papers being without numbers probably because they were originally enclosed in other, numbered, packets.

The papers were numbered for the court with blithe disregard for preserving the integrity of packets, evidently after some had been opened and the contents separated from the envelopes. This has been only partially remedied: for example, nos. 141 and 142 are now enclosed in no. 15, where they belong, 139 is enclosed in 85, 208 in 209, and 233 in 146. Nos. 109, 146, 193 and 197 remain empty envelopes (as of 15 May 2024); their original contents may be lost, or it may be possible to identify some of the other papers as belonging in them.

There are faint pencil numbers on many of the letters from a previous archival arrangement before the papers from Le Dauphin were all identified and grouped together. These numbers should now be ignored; the relevant numbers are the ones ringed round in pencil, which replicate the numbers given by the court.

The Basque-language letters are nos: 4, 9, 17, 19-20, 22, 24, 27, 33, 39, 43, 46, 48, 57, 59A, 61, 63-70, 71A and 71B, 74-75, 83-84, 87-88, 90, 94, 96, 99, 107, 112, 114, 117-120, 123-124, 128-129, 137, 172, [228]-[229].

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See:

Lapurdum Numéro spécial 2 (2015) Lamikiz, Padilla-Moyano & Videgain 'Othoi çato etchera Le Dauphin itsasontziko euskarazko gutunak 1757 - Correspondance basque du navire Le Dauphin 1757'.

Talec J. P. & Videgain C. (eds.) Mémoires, lettres et papiers du Dauphin: Bayonne, Louisbourg, Londres - 1757 (La Crèche: La Geste 2024).

Photographs of most of the Basque letters in this collection can be viewed on:Anpersana

Catalogue description updated December 2024.